Emergency Evacuation in my Office building.

Hello All,
As usual I came to office around 9.00am, removed my jacket, shoes and wore office shoes. Logged into computer and looked at all emails.
It was time for me to go to rest room.
I just entered into the rest room... the fire alarm started along with some female voice saying that "There is a emergency in this building, please evacuate the building".
For a moment I thought "Finishing the unfinished job in the rest room is more emergency than the evacuation".
After finishing all..... I came to my desk, wore my jacket and took my bag.
Started moving along with the crowd.
My office is at 22nd floor and we were not supposed to use elevators during ER.
Oh God!! started going down the stairs...
There was a big crowd just stuck in the stairs and It took 20 mins to come down to the first floor.

We saw couple of fire engines outside the building.
After staying half hr in the cold, they asked us to get into building.

Thank god. We didn't use stairs to climb up!!

Later we all got a mail saying that "IT WAS A FIRE DRILL"

But I was happy that I finished all my job at restroom!!

~Punitha

Nicely written, Punitha!
If it takes 20 min to come down to the first floor through stairs, how come everybody will get help, if needed!
It is true that the unfinished job in the restroom is very much an emergency situation than the evacuation!
did you know that it was a 'fire-drill' before?

every now and then my children used to say that they had 'fire-drill' at school.
Can imagine!

sriniketan

Hello SriniKetan,
If I knew it was a fire drill, I wouldn't have participated.
While going down the stairs along with crowd... people were mad at the instructor that what we would have to do during the ER. There should be a good plan for evacuating the building.
Sometime it is not good to work above 10th floor.

~Punitha

Originally Posted by Sriniketan

Nicely written, Punitha!
If it takes 20 min to come down to the first floor through stairs, how come everybody will get help, if needed!
It is true that the unfinished job in the restroom is very much an emergency situation than the evacuation!
did you know that it was a 'fire-drill' before?

every now and then my children used to say that they had 'fire-drill' at school.
Can imagine!

sriniketan

God, You just chilled my bones .. wondered what my friend Puni has gone through... Thank God it was just a fire drill...

Hello Malspie,
Thanks for your concern!!
I know it is so scary to work in Downtown and commuting in train to downtown, after the incidents of 911 and London subway bombs.

~Punitha

Originally Posted by malspie

God, You just chilled my bones .. wondered what my friend Puni has gone through... Thank God it was just a fire drill...

Punitha,

We have this problem too...and we cant' complain to anyone as we are working at the client site. The funny thing is that there is always a fire drill when someone new joins our team within their first or second week. We are on the 8th floor so it's not too bad to get down but the fire alarm sounds way too often (false alarm) and always when the weather is bad.

The situation gets worse when we are on another floor for a meeting and cannot get back to the desk to get our stuff to evaluate. We end up standing in the cold without jackets. Good thing there is a hotel near by so we go there but so do a lot of other people so you will be lucky to find some space there.

Oh btw, we just had a drill two days ago as we also had a new employee join the team couple weeks ago. We joke around that they evacuate the building for a fire drill so the new person knows what to do in an emergency!!!

Another funny thing is that there is a manager on the client site who seems to have intuition about these things as every time she utters the word fire alarm, the alarm goes off that day!!!

Vib

Hi Vib,
Thanks for sharing your experience.

~Punitha

Originally Posted by desidiva

Punitha,

We have this problem too...and we cant' complain to anyone as we are working at the client site. The funny thing is that there is always a fire drill when someone new joins our team within their first or second week. We are on the 8th floor so it's not too bad to get down but the fire alarm sounds way too often (false alarm) and always when the weather is bad.

The situation gets worse when we are on another floor for a meeting and cannot get back to the desk to get our stuff to evaluate. We end up standing in the cold without jackets. Good thing there is a hotel near by so we go there but so do a lot of other people so you will be lucky to find some space there.

Oh btw, we just had a drill two days ago as we also had a new employee join the team couple weeks ago. We joke around that they evacuate the building for a fire drill so the new person knows what to do in an emergency!!!

Another funny thing is that there is a manager on the client site who seems to have intuition about these things as every time she utters the word fire alarm, the alarm goes off that day!!!

Vib

Hi Dear Punitha,
In my office we had two false Fire alarms last month and it was enough cold during those days.........
At the first day, I had no idea of what was going on (I was new to this evacuation system as its my first job in USA).........after 5 minutes around our Fire Marshall came and told me to come out of the building and explained me what is going on.......
And you know, he made me Volunteer in the evacuation plan when there will be any evacuation need.........
Thank god Puni, that my lab is in first floor and we just have to cross the corridor but I can't imagine what you people have to face while coming down from 20th floor..........
Thank god, it was a fire drill only and then you were allowed to take the lift......
Take care.

Hi Puni,

Fortunately, it was only a fire drill. I read hurriedly to make sure that everything was fine with u? By the way, whats the point of saying "emergency" when u have to spend 20mins to come to the ground? anyway....

I was reminded of the drills and sirens that we experienced in Kuwait prior to the Iraq war. We used to so often hear the false siren, that I started wondering how will we recognize when it is an actual one.

bye

hi punitha,

i would love to do the fire drill everyday, atleast i will be able to shed some weight.